Those still holding on to their Apple Vision Pros may remain in a rather exclusive club throughout this year. Market research shows that sales for Apple’s first big, expensive headset will remain low in 2024. The latest reports from those keeping tabs on the Cupertino, California company say AVP will have dropped off 75% by the end of August. The true test for Apple’s spatial dreams may rest on the rumored (slightly) cheaper headset.
Usually, I’d say what Apple does best is make a compelling and polished product. If you simply compare hardware stats, you’re not telling the entire story.
In this case, however, I kind of agree. Visually and with its eye-tracking-based input, it’s a huge step up, but it falls short in many other areas: it’s hilariously expensive, uncomfortable to wear, has a tethered battery, and basically no VR game support due to the lacking controller input.
There isn’t a good enough reason to actually put on the headset. Most, if not all, of the things it does are easier done on a screen – only the VP has a lot more friction and is uncomfortable. From the unique things it does – 3D videos and VR games – there isn’t a lot of content.
Which is exactly my point. They cater to people who want the shiniest ‘new’ thing with a sense of faux class to it, and will strip some pretty fucking bare-bones features in place of “polish”. Such a stupid, meaningless word to excuse a complete and utter lack of anything of substance.
90% of the apps and games that got people interested in VR aren’t even compatible, and you KNOW they never will be. What the fuck else are you gonna do with this $3500 toy? Read emails and watch full-priced movies on iTunes? BUT MAN IT’S LIKE TOUCH SCREEN, BUT EVERYWHERE AND IN REAL LIFE! There’s nothing here. ‘Polish’ isn’t a real thing. It’s a cherry-on-top adjective for something that already has inherent value, it isn’t something of real value in its self.
Sorry man, I gotta go off on this ‘compelling and polished’ thing. Apple does maybe one “compelling” thing per decade, but even that seems like a thing of the past now. They’ve been riding the one-trick-pony that is the touch-screen smartphone for fucking ever now, and as amazing as people think it is to have a powerful computer in the palm of your hand, it’s contributed shockingly little beyond making the cell phone A. societally mandatory for everyone, and B. MASSIVELY expensive compared to what could have been.
Now sure, it’s slightly more convenient to pay for parking and complete rudimentary “productivity” tasks that you might need your laptop for, but that can be accomplished with much less. About the most “compelling” thing this technology has contributed to the world is the ability to endlessly doomscroll through funny little pictures and videos, with some REALLY sub-par and barely-tolerable games to make your city transit commute feel almost bearable. No, it’s not going to get any better, they’ve had WAY too long. It’s not going to happen now.
“Polish” is far from meaningless, it can make or break products. It’s the difference between having something that’s fun and easy to use and something that’s annoying and a pain to use. Focusing on core features can be a great if the alternative is having tons of features where non of them work.
I agree, polish isn’t worth anything if there’s nothing to be polished. The things VP does do are way nicer compared to the Quest, but in no way does that make it worth its money. There should be more VR/3D content and unique use-cases.
That’s my point, these things are easier and more comfortable to do on other screens. If, one day, we have a glasses form factor it might worth $3500 to do the exact same things in a “spacial” way – on a big screen without you even having to pull out a phone.
Basically everyone is, I don’t think we have a more compelling form factor yet and I don’t see XR replacing that anytime soon.
It’ll definitely get better, the question is if it’ll be enough to make it a compelling product.
Completely disagree with you here, and you really didn’t explain any of it. In what way does the apple face-book-mac whatever the fuck do things “way nicer” than any other headset? I get that the resolution is objectively higher than the mid-to-low end sets, but a complete lack of actual features negates that. Does the UI just have super silky animations? Transparent icons? A really sexy audio cue when you boot it up? All of this is fluff to make people feel like they made a good purchase decision.
I’m almost certain that you’ve been using this little “polish” phrase for years to justify being an Apple stan without thinking about it. You see literally any other option as the intimidating, lifted-truck meany that doesn’t appreciate that mirror shine on the back of your phone.
And yeah, most people are fresh-out of innovation. That’s besides the point, and you know it. Apple is included on that lineup, and they’re furious that someone else came up with VR and they somehow let the market create a variety of products before they could reliably gimmick the fuck out of it like they always do. Your turtle-neck fruit daddy died a long time ago, no one has any business considering Apple a respectable company anymore.
Not even sure what you disagree on or what your problem is. You seem to think that I’m a huge fan of the Vision Pro, which I’m not. I find the visual quality and interaction to be miles ahead of the Quest, it’s also more of a general purpose device – but I don’t think it matters, as it’s still not a compelling product overall. The Quest is great at gaming, which is my and probably most people’s main use-case for VR.